FROM THE STACKS
Lia Cook:
On the
Loom of
Contradiction
In thejune/july 1980 American Craft, weaver
Jan Janeiro profiled the work of textile artist
Lia Cook, noting the interplay of multiple
processes necessary to produce her complex
hangings, then woven on a 20-harness dobby
loom in heavy industrial white viscose rayon.
S T O R Y B Y
Christine Kaminsky
During the 1980s, Cook pioneered the use
of the electronic Jacquard handloom, both
in her studio and while teaching-she has
been a professor of art at the California Col-
lege of the Aits in Oakland since 1976—wed-
ding photographic and weave software to
design her work. Since 2000, the Berkeley-
based artist, in a departure from previous
endeavors, has captivated viewers with her
haunting, enigmatic images of human and
doll faces, intriguingly embedded, thread-
by-thread, in a latticelike weave structure.
Observed up close, the faces dissolve into
an ambiguous labyrinth of threads. “Faces
and Mazes: Lia Cook,” a touring exhibition
of this new work, was organized by and
debuted at the Robert Hillestad Textiles
Galien,', University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Part of the show is on view until May 15
at the Gregg Museum of Art & Design in
Raleigh, NC, while a different selection
will open on Apr. 7 in Toronto at the Tex-
tile Museum of Canada—the last venue on
the tour-and remain on view until Sept. 6.
Elected an American Craft Council Fel-
low in 1997, Cook has earned numerous
awards from organizations in the U .S., Japan
and China, including a Gold Medal at the
5th International Fiber Biennale in Beijing
in 2008. Her weavings, exhibited in over
90 shows since 2000, are in museum collec-
tions around the world. Cook is represented
by Perimeter Gallery in Chicago and Brown-
grotta Arts in Wilton, CT. “A consummate
experimenter,” says Tom Grotta, “Cook
cares deeply about process without ever
having felt constrained by it.” +
To view the entire American Craft article,
visit us at americancraftmag.org.
At the heart of the sixth
floor of 72 Spring Street
in New York City is
the American Craft
Council library, one of
the largest collections
in this country of craft,
art and design books
documenting the studio
craft movement from
the 1940s to the present.
The over 14,000 volumes
include the Council’s
68-ycar publishing
history-all past issues
of
Craft Horizons
and
American Craft. W e’d
like to share some of this
amazing past with you
each issue as we dig
through the stacks. And
if you happen to be in
New York, the library
is open to the public
by appointment.
096 american craft
feb/m ario
www.journal-plaza.net & www.freedowns.net
